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An email is sent out to all
undergraduates on the Ohio University Athens campus during the 7th week of every fall semester,
coinciding with Winter pre-registration. Included in the email is a description
of the University Professor award along withinformation directing students to an online ballot. All
undergraduates are invited to nominate their favorite professor for the
University Professor award. The online ballot lists all Ohio University faculty
in alpha-order, in pull –down boxes, similar to what one sees on the
“Courses Available” page from the Registrar’s Office under “Advanced Search”.

After one week, a complete tally is
downloaded and recorded. Approximately 20-25 Group I, tenure-track faculty are
selected from the top of the nomination pool. The nominations, received by the faculty with the highest amount of votes, are then weighted with the number of
students taught in the previous three semesters using course load/FTE data from
the Office of Institutional Research. This generates a score that factors the
number of votes received with the actual number of students taught. From these
statistics,the nomination pool is
reduced to the top eight nominees.
These nominees are then contacted to see if they want to accept the nomination,
and if so, they are asked about their availability to teach a University
Professor course in the next academic year.

During winter semester, the
nominees are interviewed by the University Professor Selection Committee
(UPSC), which consists of 10-14 undergraduate students. The students follow a
general script which consists of questions about the nominee’s research
interests, scholarly accomplishments, teaching philosophies, a generalconversation about what they value in
the interactions with their students. The UPSC
members also observe and assess the UP nominees' classes. During these
observations, they rely on adetailed observation form to assess the nominees’ teaching and
interactions with their students. The UPSC uses the notes taken from interviews
with the nominees, notes taken from observing the nominee’s class, and the nominee’s class proposals to guide them
through a rather energetic final deliberations meeting from which they choose
the top four nominees. This list of recommended nominees is then forwarded to
the Associate Provost of Faculty and Academic Planning who also verifies the eligibility of the recommended four nominees for the award and then publicly announces the
winners.